(adapted from a lecture of Swami Paramarthananda)
What we call as traditional bhakti
is one that is not an emotional attachment to a finite God in the form of a
person. It is not an emotional obsession; but, it is the love and reverence for
the infinite limitless God, based on scriptures.
yat tad adresyam agrahyam
agotram avarṇam acaksuhsrotraṃ tad apanipadam ।
nityam vibhuṃ sarvagatam
smam tad avyayaṃ m paripasyanti dhiraḥ ॥
(By means of higher knowledge) The wise realize everywhere that
which cannot be perceived and grasped, which is without source, features, eyes,
and ears, which has neither hands nor feet, which is eternal, omnipresent,
all-pervasive, extremely subtle, and imperishable, and which is the source of
all.
That
means there is no specific form for God and provisional forms are adopted only for
relating to Him for worship with puja, abhishekam etc. Getting hooked to a form will make it
difficult to transcend the form, with higher knowledge (Para Vidya). Though one starts with
a provisional form as ishta devata, one must always keep in mind that God
is invisible, inherent, Intelligence that is pervading everywhere, who is
invoked as the Ishta devata with a particular form and name. One starts with a provisional form; but
later with the growing Jnanam, God is recognised as, the invisible,
inherent, Intelligence that is pervading everywhere. Therefore, the first
feature of bhakti is, reverential appreciation of God as cosmic Intelligence.
The second feature of bhakti
is, reverential appreciation of the universe itself as the body of God. If God is inherent in the entire universe,
pervading the entire universe, the universe must be the physical body of the
Lord. Appreciating the universe as the
body of the Lord is appreciating the whole universe as Viswarupa Ishwara. This reverential appreciation of the world is
very important; because, as the appreciation of the whole universe, consisting
of a mixture of good and bad, will gradually dilute both one’s attachments and
aversions. Greater the appreciation,
lesser will be the raga dwesha. In Viswarupa
Bhakthi, there can be no difference between Lord Siva and Lord Vishnu as
the universe is one and the same. Rudram
is description of Shiva as the universe. Purusha Suktam is the
description of Vishnu as the universe.
So in Viswarupa Bhakthi one can grow out of the narrow division
between deities and foster a sense of unity and oneness among them. So whatever the form one adopts for Ishta
devata, one should not forget that God is not confined to that form and the
whole universe is manifestation of God only.
The third feature of
traditional bhakthi is the reverential appreciation of God as the source
of the Vedas, our primary scriptures.
Svetasvatara Upanishad (6-18) states:
yo brahmanam vidadhati purvaṃ
yo vai vedaṃsca prahinoti tasmai I
tam ha devam
atmabuddhiprakasam mumuksurvai saranamaham prapadye II
Seeking
Liberation, I take refuge in the Lord, the revealer of Self-Knowledge, who in
the beginning created Brahma and delivered the Vedas to Him.
Vedas are not only a manual
for life but also our only source of knowing God Himself. With
all our instruments of knowledge, including modern scientific equipments and
all the research, one is not able to discover God, indicating that God is not
accessible for the human instruments of knowledge. So the only source of knowledge of God is
Vedas only. One is grateful to God for
giving the Vedas to know Him, for without knowing about Him there can be no bhakthi
or bhaktha.
The fourth feature of
traditional bhakthi is the reverential appreciation of Vedas themselves
as a gift from God. A bhaktha is
one who uses Vedas as the guide for his life with full faith in its validity as
God-given manual for life. One of the Pancha
Maha Yajnas is Brahma Yajna, worship of the scriptures through
reverential study and this is possible only if one has reverence for scriptures.
Swami Paramarthananda calls Vedas as
GPS, God’s positioning system, for life.
The fifth feature of
traditional Bhakthi is the regular, systematic reverential study of the
scriptures. This is one of the Pancha Maha Yajnas and
also then only one can follow the lifestyle and code of conduct given in Vedas.
But one faces difficulty because of the volume of the Vedas and the difficulty
of Vedic language which is not easy to follow with mere knowledge of the
language. God, as Lord Krishna, has
condensed the Vedas in a simpler language in 700 slokas spread over 18
chapters in Bhagavad Gita. Madhusudhana
Saraswathi praises Bhagavad Gita
thus:
sarvopaniṣado
gavo dogdha gopala-nandanaḥ|
partho
vatsaḥ sudhirbhokta dugdhaṃ gitamṛtaṃ mahatII
All the Upaniṣhads are the
cows. Krishna is the milker. Arjuna is the calf. The
pure-minded are the enjoyers
(of the milk). The supreme nectar of
Gita is the
milk.
In the 16th
chapter of Gita, Lord talks about the right values to be followed as Daivi
sampath and wrong habits to be given up as Asuri sampath. In various places it talks about sat
karmani, proper actions; sat bhavanah, proper attitudes; and sat
gunah, noble qualities which are to be adopted by a true, sincere devotee. Such a study makes one an informed bhaktha
and one’s informed bhakthi is free of common misconceptions, two of
which are listed as follows.
One of the popular
misconceptions is bhaktha will have no problems in life. The scriptures do not make such a
promise. On the contrary they state that
prarabdha karma has to be experienced by everyone, bhaktha or non-bhaktha. Bhakti will give inner balance and
inner strength, which will help one confront one’s karma with courage and
confidence. Second misconception is that
mere bhakthi without karma can help one achieve one’s goals. Bhakthi promises only God’s grace and
not miracles and bhakthi is not a substitute for karma. So bhakthi must be an informed bhakthi,
to be free of misconceptions and seek only His Grace. For that reverential
study of scriptures is necessary. Reverential
systematic study of scriptures confers another benefit as well. Systematic study of strictures with a refined
mind under a guru will help one to acquire knowledge of Self, Athma Jnanam,
and attain Moksha, Liberation.
So to sum up the five
features of traditional bhakthi are:
1) Reverential
appreciation of God as the cosmic Intelligence
2) Reverential
appreciation of the very visible universe itself as the very body of God
3) Reverential
appreciation of God as the source of Vedas
4) Reverential
appreciation of Vedas as God-given life-manual
5) Reverential
study of scriptures
---------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment